1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording device which can record information onto a hard disk or the like, and which can play back the information recorded on the hard disk or the like, and which can record information onto recording media such as a DVD (digital versatile disk) or the like, and which can play back the information recorded on the DVD. In particular, the present invention relates to a recording rate automatic setting recording device and a recording rate automatic setting recording method which set a recording bit rate in consideration of recording capacities of a front surface (first recording surface) and a back surface (second recording surface) of a both surfaces recordable DVD.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, optical disk playback devices which handle dynamic images, for playing back optical disks on which dynamic images and audio are recorded, have been developed. These devices, such as, for example, LD, video CD playback devices or the like, have become popular for viewing movie software, enjoying karaoke or the like.
Currently, a DVD standard has been proposed which utilizes the MPEG2 (Moving Image Coding Expert Group) method that has been standardized internationally, and which utilizes the AC3 audio compression method. This standard supports a dynamic image compression method with the MPEG2 method in accordance with an MPEG2 system layer, and supports an audio compression method with the AC3 audio compression method and an MPEG audio compression method. Moreover, supplementary image data in which bitmap data is run-length-compressed can be treated as the subtitles of a movie, karaoke or the like. Further, control data for special playback (a navigation pack) such as fast forward, reverse or the like is added to the standard. Moreover, in the standard, ISO9660 and micro UDF standards are supported such that the data of a disk can be read by a computer.
Further, as a standard of a medium itself, following the standards of DVD-ROMs which are media of DVD-videos, standards of DVD-RAMs (recording capacity: about 4.7 GB) have been completed, and DVD-RAM drives have begun to become popular as peripheral devices of computers.
Further, currently, a standard of RTR (Real Time Recording)-DVDs which utilizes DVD-RAMs is being completed, and the verification operation has been finished. The standard of RTR-DVDs has been conceived of on the basis of the standard of DVD-videos which are currently on the market. Further, a file system corresponding to RTR-DVDs has also been standardized.
Further, a device which can record and play back broadcasting signals by using a built-in hard disk drive (HDD) has appeared. The hard disk drive can record data of, for example, 100 gigabytes or more.
A hard disk device which records information on a hard disk drive, a DVD device which records information on a DVD, and a DVD/hard disk device which records information on both of a hard disk drive and a DVD are all mass recording devices. These devices can record a large number of programs, and, for example, it is predicted that recording based on recording reservations increases.
Further, in order to precisely realize recording reservations, there is the need to precisely recognize the remaining capacity of the disk, and to appropriately set the recording bit rate in accordance with the remaining capacity. For example, if a recording bit rate is set to be high (high vividness) regardless of the fact that the remaining capacity is low, there are cases in which a program cannot be recorded to the end thereof.
Among DVD-RAMs, both surfaces recordable or two-layer recordable disks have been proposed. Disk management information is recorded on the respective recording surfaces or the respective recording layers of the DVD-RAMs. At the time of recording, the disk management information recorded on the target recording surface or recording layer is read, and the entire capacity, the recorded (used) capacity, the free capacity, and the like can be known from the disk management information. However, if there are a plurality of recording surfaces or recording layers, although the remaining capacity of one recording surface or recording layer can be known, the remaining capacities of the other recording surfaces or recording layers cannot be known. Therefore, when a recording reservation or the like is carried out, it is impossible to judge over a plurality of surfaces whether the remaining capacity is appropriate or not for the length of time of the reserved recording program. Simply, when the method is a method which sets the recording bit rate for the remaining capacity read from a single surface, if the remaining capacity is low at the front surface, regardless of the fact that there is sufficient remaining capacity at the back surface, there are cases in which the bit rate is set to be low and poor image quality recording occurs.
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording rate automatic setting recording device and a recording rate automatic setting recording method which can set an appropriate recording bit rate for a disk having a plurality of recording surfaces.